Ubu on the table

On tour since 1998
All audiences from 14 years-old

A world of grotesque on a table!

This award-wining adaptation of King Ubu has garnered much praise – the objects' raw form and the performance's frenetic pace are perfectly suited for Jarry's cruel farce. Since its creation, Ubu has been performed over 850 times in Québec, Mexico, Brazil and Europe!

Two armies of French baguettes face each other in a stand-off as tomato bombs explode, an egg beater hovers over fleeing troops and molasses-blood splatters on fork-soldiers as they charge Père Ubu. Anything goes as Poland's fate is sealed on a tabletop! Multiple film references spice things up as two performers hammer-out a small-scale fresco of grandiose buffoonery.

Ubu is undeniably comfortable surrounded by kitchen utensils that double as gorging tools and weapons to annihilate the "sagouins". The banality of the objects dramatically underscores the grotesque nature of the characters: Captain Bordure, embodied by a standard hammer, is forever stuck in his rigid stance, forced to repeat the same ridiculous expressions over and over. The Object's expressive limits force the creators to focus on the dramatic action rather than on the psychological development of the characters. The actor-puppeteers (in full view) appeal to the audience's intelligence and imagination by conveying a second degree to the storyline.

Awards

- OFQJ-RIDEAU Award, creation category (2003)
- Critic's Awards at the Festivalul International de Teatru Atelier in Baia Mare, Romania (2007)
- Best Show Award at the International Puppet Theatre Festival in Plovdiv, Bulgaria (2010)
- Special mention from the jury for the innovative object manipulation at the International Puppel Festival "Visiting Arlekin" in Omsk, Russia (2013)

Press reviews

"Humorous, inventive and wilfully juvenile, (…) Ubu on the Table tickles the funny bone and the imagination."
(Marie Labrecque, Voir)

"An iconoclastic version of an already irreverent and unbridled work, the performance is great fun and yet quite learned: theater specialists and connoisseurs will delight in the many subtle references, twists and delicious technical feats."
(Denise Pelletier, Le Quotidien)

"Their Object Theater is striking for its childish abandon, its subversive energy and its confidence in the audience's ability to grasp the symbolism at play."
(Jean St-Hilaire, Le Soleil)

"There's a childlike approach in their object hijacking, in their hilarious improvisation, how they get caught up in the game and end up thumbing their noses at any basic sense of likelihood." (G.G., L'Ardennais)

"Our inner child marvels at what these two creators' galloping imaginations manage to pull together with nothing more than a table, a bottle, a min-mop, a hammer, spoons, French baguettes and an army of forks, among other small-scale surprises. The adult in us appreciates the cocky, tongue-in-cheek attitude and the deeper understanding of the text, an adaptation of Alfred Jarry's King Ubu."
(Ève Dumas, La Presse)